Measuring lysosomal stability as an effective tool for marine coastal environmental monitoring

The use of lysosomal stability in the mussel, Mytilus galloprovincialis, as a potential biomarker of environmental contamination has been evaluated along the Portuguese coast. To this end, the neutral red retention (NRR) time was measured in mussel haemocytes gathered from nine different locations reflecting different degrees of anthropogenic contamination. Mussels collected in the vicinity of industrial and urban areas showed the lowest lysosomal stability. Additionally, no significant seasonal variability (winter-spring/summer) for NRR time was observed. In order to further support the usefulness of this method as an integrated tool for monitoring marine coastal environments, we compared the levels of xenobiotics in mussel tissues with the obtained NRR values. The results highlighted a consistent pattern, with the lowest lysosomal stability intimately correlated with the higher contaminant concentrations. In summary, this integrated approach further demonstrated that the NRR assay can provide useful and objective indications of the real health status of organisms subjected to different stress agents, being a valid option for environmental monitoring.     

粉红色红拟抱球虫在冲绳海槽区的发现及地层意义

近年来,我们在冲绳海槽区进行大量工作.本文就Z14-6孔(27°07′N127°27′E)首次发现粉红色红拟抱球虫,及稳定同位素测定,进行对比研究,证明了Thompson等1979年所提出的粉红色拟抱球虫在印度-太平洋海域灭绝时代在距今120000年左右的观点.     

有机物和海洋碳循环

有机物和海洋碳循环ＮｏｂｕｈｉｋｏＨａｎｄａ大洋是控制大气二氧化碳的决定因素，所以海洋系统中的碳循环以及空气—海洋相互作用引起的二氧化碳转换均集中在体现其化学和生物过程。该过程主要包含由浮游植物光合作用、有机物从表层至深部水的垂直搬运以及其降解作用又...     

赤道太平洋的环流

一.引 言 赤道太平洋上层海洋环流的主要特征已被建立十多年了。1942年斯维尔德鲁普等人描述了中太平洋的表面流:往西流的北和南赤道流以及往东流的北赤道逆流。随后,南赤道逆流也被用表面动力高度图表示出来(Reia,1961),Cromwell等人(1954)发现了赤道潜流,从而对上述环流的描述进行了主要修正。Hisard和Rual(1970)发现了赤道潜流下面     

SVLBI用于大地测量的卫星轨道及其跟踪网设计(英文)

SVLBI （space very long baseline interferometry） has some important potential applications in geodesy and geodynamics, for which one of the most difficult tasks is to precisely determine the orbit of an SVLBI satellite. This work studies several technologies that will possibly be able to determine the orbit of a space VLBI satellite. Then, according to the types and charac- teristics of the satellite and the requirements for geodetic study and the geometry of the GNSS （GPS, GALILEO） satellite to track the space VLBI satellite, the six Keplerian elements of the SVLBI satellite （TEST-SVLBI） are determined. A program is designed to analyze the coverage area of space of different altitudes by the stations of the network, with which the tracking network of TEST-SVLBI is designed. The efficiency of tracking TEST-SVLBI by the network is studied, and the results are presented.     

Regional development in the United States during the 1980s: population redistribution and economic restructuring

The reduction of the rate of growth of the Brazilian population from 3% in the 1960s to 2% by 1993 resulted from a significant reduction of fertility. According to the 1986 national maternal-child health and family planning survey (PNSMIPF) results, 43.3% of women were using some type of contraception: 65.6% of married or cohabiting women. Women relied most on sterilization (17.2%), followed by oral contraceptives (OCs) (17%), the rhythm method (2.8%), the condom (1.1%), and others (5.2%). Only in the south was OC use more prevalent (28.5%) than sterilization (12.2%). The proportion of sterilization reached 27.8% in the north/center-east urban regions. In urban areas sterilization averaged 18.7% vs. 12.7% in rural areas. 26.9% of currently married women in the age range of 15-44 years had been sterilized. A 1990 international estimation indicated that the proportion of sterilization amounted to 36.9% in China, 30.95 in India, 29.7% in Brazil, 47.6% in South Korea, 30.4% in Thailand, and 36.5% in the Dominican Republic. The 1986 PNSMIPF survey also indicated that sterilized women were better informed than other women about contraception. 75% of the former had used OCs, 5% had used the diaphragm, 3% the IUD, 30% the condom, and 35% coitus interruptus at one time or other. The sterilized women had an average of 1.7 more children than those who were using other methods of contraception. 48.6% of women were sterilized before the age of 30, when they had had an average of 3.6 children. 66.6% of the sterilized women who had given birth before the age of 20 had 4 or more live births as compared to 5.9% of sterilized women aged 30 with the same number of children. 47% of women without any schooling were using some kind of contraception vs. 77% of those who had completed secondary school. A multivariate analysis also showed that the age of the mother, the number of live births, the educational status of the mother, and family income were positively correlated with sterilization.     

Measurements in N2-CH4(C2H2) discharges of reaction rates and thermochemical constants for Titan atmosphere study

The kinetic reactions in N2-xCH4(C2H2) gas discharges with x less than 1% have been studied by emission spectroscopy in the afterglow of D.C. discharges and by mass spectroscopy from radiolysis ionization using alpha particles. The pressure range is from several Torr to 100 Torr. At the end of N2 D.C. discharges at room temperature, for a residence time of about 10(-2) s, the dominant active species are the N atoms with density of 10(14)-10(15) cm-3 for N2 density of about 10(17) cm-3 (3 Torr), the N2(X,V) vibrational molecules with for example [N2(X,V = 10)] approximately 10(14) cm-3 and the electronic metastable molecules N2(A 3 sigma u +) with a density of 10(12) cm-3. In such conditions, the following kinetic reactions have been studied: N2(A) + N2(A) --> N2(C,B,V') + N2(X), N2(A) + N2(X,V>5) --> N2(X) + N2(B,V') in pure N2 post-discharges and N2(A) + CH4 --> products, C + N + M2 --> CN(B,V') + M2, N2(X,V>4) + CN --> N2(X) + CN(B,A,V'), in N2-1% CH4 post-discharges. The clustering reactions of N2-(1-5%)CH4(C2H2) gas mixtures after radiolysis ionization have been studied for the H2CN+ nN2 ions and the equilibrium constants have been determined in the temperature range T = 140-300 K.     

Chemical abundances in cold, dark interstellar clouds

The Sun may well have formed in the type of interstellar cloud currently referred to as a cold, dark cloud. We present current tabulations of the totality of known interstellar molecules and of the subset which have been identified in cold clouds. Molecular abundances are given for two such clouds which show interesting chemical differences in spite of strong physical similarities, Taurus Molecular Cloud 1 (TMC-1) and Lynd's 134N (L134N, also referred to as L183). These regions may be at different evolutionary stages.     

Permeable Reactive Barrier for the treatment of contaminated surface water in Katedan industrial development area, Hyderabad, India

Permeable Reactive Barrier （PRB） is an emplacement of inert material （s） in the subsurface, designed to intercept a contaminated plume, provides a preferential flow path through the reactive media, and transforms the contaminant into environmentally acceptable forms to attain concentration remediation goals at the discharge of the barrier. The phenomena, which help in remediation within PRB, are adsorption/sorption, precipitation, oxidation/reduction and biodegradation. Various materials like zero-valent iron, zero-valent bi-metals, natural zeolites, organic carbon, fly ash, zeolites, limestone, activated alumina, apatites, etc. have been tried by many researchers to remove organic and inorganic contaminants. In USA, Canada, and many European countries commercial full-scale and pilot scale PRBs are successfully working. The design and installation of full scale PRBs needs laboratory treatability and dynamic flow column experiments？ The concept of PRB is being applied to treat contaminated surface water in the Katedan industrial area, Hyderabad, India. National Geophysical Research Institute （NGRI）, Hyderabad, India, conducted systematic studies in collaboration with Norwegian Geotechnical Institute （NGI）, Norway, to develop PRB technique to decontaminate the surface water pollution due to industrial effluent. A site assessment study in the Katedan Industrial Area, were carried out and water, soil and sediment from the lakes of the area were found to be polluted with high concentrations of heavy metals like As, Pb, Cr, Cd, Ni, etc. Adsorption studies at NGRI with synthetic samples and in-situ industrial effluent using different reactive media for removing contaminants like arsenic, chromium, cadmium, copper, nickel, lead and zinc have been carried out and yielded satisfactory results. The performance of zero-valent iron and limestone is encouraging in removing As,     

Petrogenesis and geotectonic setting of the PanAfrican basement rocks in Bamenda Massif, Obudu Plateau, southeastern Nigeria： Evidence from trace element geochemistry

1 IntroductionThe study area is part of the Obudu Plateau,which forms part of the Precambrian Pan-African tec-tonothermal belt, lying between the West African Cra-ton and the Gabon-Congo Craton ( Fig. 1). It isbounded by the Benue Trough, in the NE-SW axi…